Caephus woke to the sound of Léon's screams.
"Hold him steady!"
Mistress?
His eyes sluggishly opened as his breath turned to a wheeze. The Amazons had done quite the number on him—he could feel at least four broken ribs—that would limit his shapechanging until he healed. It took a few steps from his cot to see what they'd done to Dechamps. Three fellow Bestiamorphs were holding him face-down while Mistress Circe waved her glowing hands over his body. Gouges had been torn into his lower back, and even part of his spine was exposed.
Léon was currently biting on a halfway-gnawed branch soaked in refined mandrake extract. By how much he was still screaming, it wasn't doing much for the pain. Circe bombarded the wound with opalescent magic, the light rapidly shifting from one end of the color spectrum to the other as if searching for something. Finally, it settled on a deep indigo, and Léon's screaming started to ebb. His jaw visibly relaxed, though he still didn't release the branch.
Little by little, the gouges started to mend, though the process was glacial for how fast Circe's healing magic usually worked.
"Why is it not working, Mistress?" Caephus asked.
She glanced his way with glowing eyes. "You're awake—good. Relieve these two." She nodded at the Bestiamorphs holding Léon's arms. "This wound was inflicted with the boy's sword."
Caephus' eyes widened in alarm as he pinned Léon's wrists. "Nth-metal? Its effects do not usually linger like this."
"Only in its less refined state. When forged properly, its properties are exponentially more versatile—and dangerous." She snarled. "He is the one who poisoned me."
"Then we will avenge you both."
She smirked. "I believe Léon here already did before he sustained these injuries. If the boy survives the effects of Stygian flame, I will be very surprised."
Slowly, Léon's wounds began to close. Caephus stayed there, holding him steady as long minutes passed with little change. At long last, he relaxed enough to release the branch and coughed to clear his airways enough to speak.
"Did you get it?" Léon asked.
Caephus smiled grimly and nodded. He motioned for one of the others to collect a nearby satchel. Inside was a tablet with tri-script markings similar to Keravnós, one that had been dreadfully out of place in that exhibit. With Elliot distracting the brats as their bus driver, it was easy enough to swipe it from the museum before the attack. Circe's magic faded as Léon's healing slowed to a finish.
She took the tablet with a smile. "With this, we have all we need to finish." Circe cast Caephus a warm smile. "Thank you, my friend. You have given me a great opportunity that will not be wasted."
Caephus bowed. "I live to serve, milady."
Circe caressed his face for a moment, then released him and moved toward an altar just outside the tent. Caephus followed her out, with Léon sluggishly at his heels. She laid the tablet on the altar and bent over it with icy determination. Her fingers wove violet arcs of magic, rapidly interspersed with arcs of red and black light.
"Stygian flame, milady?" Léon asked.
"No," she said grimly. "Something far worse, to be used once and never again."
"For what purpose, Mistress?" Caephus asked.
Circe straightened as the tablet's text flared with light for a moment, then a bowl on the altar was filled with chalky powder. She scowled at its contents.
"To prevent catastrophe," she answered.
"Stygian flame was meant to kill Titans," Léon reminded her. "What catastrophe could be worse that would require such methods?"
Circe sighed and shut her eyes. "You nearly gave your lives for this end. I suppose I owe you that much."
She raised her hands and flicked them in the direction of her lieutenants. Immediately, all went dark.
Then there was fire—pervasive, overwhelming, choking the very air in Caephus' lungs. The slopes of Aeaea were ablaze with it, with liquid fire bubbling up from beneath the earth. And everywhere, in all directions, was more of the same. At the head of that flame were humans, but not human. Their eyes glowed with perverse red fire, their expressions nothing short of single-minded madness. And they were everywhere.
Caephus looked on in horror as his Bestiamorph brothers were cut down by blade and gunfire—or worse, pinned down by the invaders and subjected to a horrid, demonic mask. Within moments, every victim's eyes changed and became as they were. The tide rolled with the advance of the humans and their brainwashed victims, growing exponentially with every convert or kill. When the dust settled and the cries of battle ceased, one figure stood over them all, climbing atop the mountain of corpses.
A pale woman in armor, with a tusked mask whose lips had been sewn shut. Nevertheless, she spoke in a voice not entirely her own.
"Kneel and be Justified, you of frail existence."
Her arms splayed outward, and Caephus looked out to the horizon. The oceans were boiled away, and the skies filled with dust and smoke. In every direction, destruction. On every slope of every continent, desolation. Walking corpses and flying demons. Gods and monsters. No trace of life left in the world.
And over it all stood this woman, triumphant and powerful.
With a red star set against a gold diadem.
Caephus' air was punched out of him as the vision dissolved. Léon looked no better. They both looked to Circe in pure horror.
"How is this possible?" Léon asked shakily.
She clasped her hands at her waist in front of her. "I don't know. This vision came to me two years ago, and I have been preparing ever since."
Caephus' eyes widened. "Your attack on the princess last year—"
"Was a preemptive strike. It failed for lack of power." Circe turned to the ritual bowl. "A mistake I have no intention of repeating."
"How do we deliver it?"
"You cannot. Loathe as I am to admit it, we require an outsider's help—and the ideal opportunity."
"Then we shall watch and wait," Léon said solemnly.
Circe strode past them, gripping their arms and meeting their eyes. "Your steadfast companionship has been the one saving grace of this soulless witch. Thank you."
They each held her hand in turn and bowed.
Her smile faded as she let them go and retreated to a private chamber on the highest peak of Aeaea. Within, all was dark until she waved her hands and summoned a device utterly alien to the ancient dwelling. The holoprojector powered up a moment later, and two silhouettes filled the empty space, one female, one male.
The female spoke first. "Lady Circe, is this call cause for concern or celebration?"
Circe smiled grimly. "A bit of both, I think. Thanks to Thomas Elliot and my lieutenants, the princess's whelp ought to be on death's door by now. Moreover, we have what we need to finish the first phase of Project Jericho. Elliot's referral, though irritating, has been an unforeseen blessing. You trained him well."
"Glad to hear it." She turned to the other silhouette. "And on your end?"
"The device is nearly complete," he said. "All I need now is the power source. Have your people been able to infiltrate the Network deeply enough to recover it?"
"It is not simply a question of depth, but of breadth, I'm afraid. This particular resource is difficult to source and tightly guarded. Appropriately so, given its effects on Kryptonians. Why again have you not simply reached out to them with an offer?"
He crossed his arms. "Because I doubt Zirconan Nebula values what I have to give nearly enough to make that deal. And with his recent setbacks, I doubt even more that Sionis has enough pull to convince them otherwise."
"Hm…and you're certain this device will work as intended? It wouldn't be the first time you've failed to vanquish the Kryptonians."
He was dead silent for a long moment. Then his voice replied in false mirth, with a thin layer of ice. "My dear lady, if you had doubts, you should've voiced them before we made this little pact of ours. We're committed now. If I had anything less than the utmost confidence in each of our abilities, I would never have involved myself in this fool's errand. But…" he turned to Circe, "Circe's 'visions' align with what I've already suspected for years. There's too much at stake to back down. At this junction, anything short of unity is certain to lose us this fight, you can be sure of that. We have no choice."
The woman sighed. "Fair enough. We proceed as planned. My people will finish acquiring the power source in the next few weeks. We will need to strike in rapid succession before they have time to recover."
"I will ensure my stroke falls first," Circe said. "While they are busy scrambling to save the princess and her unborn, the other two will be vulnerable." She smiled venomously. "More so once they inevitably fail."
"Then we will see it done," she replied. "For the sake of humanity."
As one, the other two returned, "For the sake of humanity."
Then the projector powered down, and the room went dark.
…
The day was here.
Cyborg finally finished decoding the data tap from Mount Lycabettus. What they found was more than the League had hoped for: drugs, guns, cargo manifests—everything they needed for a simultaneous strike against the Network. The dogfighting ring had yielded much less favorable intel, but that was a problem for another day.
Today's objective: cripple the Network's operations across the globe in one fell swoop. With Interpol, ARGUS, and Justice League International; Operation Falling Star would be the largest globally-coordinated strike since the Olympus War. What had started with a simple black market bust and reprisal had escalated to all-out war—a short one, if Superman had anything to say about it. And he had a lot to say.
"Agent Bordeaux, Director Waller," Clark greeted. "Thank you for joining us. I understand we have some new arrivals to the case for this operation, so let's recap for those who aren't fully up to speed."
Sasha and Waller gave him a nod.
Superman pressed a button on the conference table and projected the Network's file over the call. "About two months ago, the Green Lantern Laira Omoto came to Earth tracking an interstellar syndicate called Zirconan Nebula. She told Supergirl, Blue Lantern, and the Tomorrow Knight about an auction that was set to happen near Liberty Island in New York City. They disrupted the auction and exposed a node of what we've come to call 'the Network.' In the weeks that followed, the Knight came under attack from an outlaw PMC called Red Claw under the employ of Roman Sionis, AKA Black Mask.
"A bounty had been placed on Knight's head as a result of his interference in New York. Seeing this opportunity, the Decembrists sold a compound to Sionis called Δ-Venom, which gives its user fifteen minutes of metahuman physique." He pulled up pictures of SWC. "Not long after, a prisoner at the Solomon Wayne Containment center was broken out by this man—Thomas Elliot, AKA Hush." An old photo of Elliot was projected, showing auburn hair and clean-shaven youth. "Near as we can tell, he's been working with the witch Circe to undermine our efforts in dismantling the Network."
Batman chimed in. "Elliot is a master assassin and world-renowned neurological and reconstructive surgeon. Among his many talents is the ability to replicate the face and mannerisms of anyone he's had time to study. Combine this with his training under Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins, and the threat he poses as an infiltrator alone is not to be underestimated."
Superman gave him a nod. "During the incident at SWC, Elliot not only killed four staff members, he unleashed a canister of Jonathan Crane's fear toxin and stole several others. The purpose of that theft was revealed weeks later during an attack on a school trip visiting the Metropolis Museum of Art. After further examination, we believe this attack was meant as a distraction that allowed Circe's accomplices to steal this."
A projection of the tablet Robin had tagged came up, along with the empty case where it used to sit.
"The tablet's a record from an unknown ancient Mediterranean culture," Zatanna said. "We still don't know what purpose they have for it, but we do know that Circe's been taking advantage of the Olympus War's fallout to gather power from the remains of the conflict. If this is part of that, it's imperative that we track it down ASAP."
Batman pulled up the file on the Lycabettus op. "To that end, a group of independent operators infiltrated one of the Network's distribution centers in Athens, a subterranean base in Mount Lycabettus being run by Circe's Bestiamorphs. They were able to plant a data tap and sabotage Circe's empowerment. The intel retrieved from that op serves as the basis of today's operation."
Superman pulled up a slowly rotating projection of Earth with several locations highlighted. "Using the data from their computers, we were able to pinpoint the locations of distribution hubs, suppliers, and cyber-hacking groups critical to the Network. The Justice League has convened with Director Waller of ARGUS and Agent Bordeaux of Interpol, and we've agreed that our best chance at dismantling Sionis' operations is a simultaneous raid at each location." He pulled up a roster of active Leaguers. "The League will be deploying four teams to sites most likely to have the largest resistance.
"They'll be led by Captain Nathaniel Adam, Keystone City's Flash, and Green Lantern Hal Jordan. The element of surprise is critical—Circe has proven adept at teleporting her forces out in a pinch, and we still don't know how much of a presence Zirconan Nebula has on Earth. They've already proven willing to kill their allies to maintain secrecy, so it's imperative that we strike fast and apprehend as many as we can before they have the chance to fight back or sound alarms."
Here, Waller spoke up. "ARGUS and Interpol will do the same at their locations. Remember, we need intel as much as we need arrests, so cordon off each area and make sure nobody flies the coop. We get this done right, and we'll have a real case to bring down Sionis and anyone connected to him."
"A few additional League members and associates will be on standby just in case anyone runs into trouble. Hopefully that's not necessary." Superman took a moment to let it sink in, then asked, "Any questions?"
Sasha cleared her throat. "One. Who are these 'independent operators' you mentioned?"
Batman frowned. "Allied associates, primarily non-Justice League. Codename: Vagabonds."
She arched an eyebrow. "Metahumans?"
"Some. For their safety and ours, they've requested to remain anonymous."
Bordeaux hummed and nodded.
"Anyone else?" Superman asked.
No one spoke up.
"All right then," Waller said. "Your team leaders will have more details on each site. Operation Falling Star begins in one hour. Good luck, and good hunting."
...
The call ended, and the Watchtower was engulfed by a flurry of movement as each team assembled and headed for the teleporters. The Vagabonds were sitting around a large table in one of the nearby ready rooms. They'd been patched into the call, as had Alfred, Robin, and a very visibly pregnant Diana in the Batcave. For obvious reasons, Diana couldn't attend in person, but she'd be monitoring the operation nonetheless. Donna and Cassie would've gotten in on this, but per Hippolyta's orders, they were helping the Amazon rangers track down Circe. A week had passed since Jason was almost killed and still they had nothing. Hopefully today would change that.
Batman took a closer look at his new gauntlets as he suited up.
He'd forwarded his idea to Lucius about assimilating Nth-metal into his suit and utilized Jason's leftovers to do just that. The result had been even better than they'd anticipated: full synchronization with the piezoelectric undersuit to harness incoming energy. They still didn't have many applications for that energy—yet—but Lucius had managed to install Batman's electric knuckles in the gloves with a much sleeker design. Similar to Black Bat, the knuckles' retractable spikes had also been integrated directly into his gauntlets with the last Nth-metal scraps. The longer he was in a fight, the stronger the current they'd emit and the faster his opponent would go down.
The modification had taken a lot of time and money, but considering the superhuman threats they were consistently running up against, it was well worth the investment. The location his team had chosen was by all indications a manufacturing center for advanced weaponry to their clients all over the world. This was the source of all the smart rifles they kept running into. They fully expected it to be guarded by the Network's best: Red Claw, Bestiamorphs, maybe a metahuman mercenary or two.
Nothing they couldn't handle.
"I wish we were going with you."
Bruce turned to see Jason and Cass approaching.
Bruce frowned. "If we want your team to keep its anonymity, it's important you avoid direct public contact with the League as much as possible."
"I mean, we're partnered up with Batman," Jason pointed out. "I think that ship has already sailed."
Bruce smirked. "Everyone knows I'm the odd one out. What we don't want is Interpol or Waller getting too interested in the rest of your team."
"You mean Caden," Cass said.
He shook his head. "Waller knows better than to bark up that tree. Interpol, maybe not so much, but their file on him is enough to scare off most. The real concern is Carlisle."
Cass visibly bristled a bit. "What about him?"
"He's a wild card," Bruce said carefully, "an unknown. To some, that screams danger, and finding out he doesn't exist on this Earth wouldn't help that."
"But—"
"We know better, but the others may not be so accepting."
Cass's lips pursed tightly, and she said nothing more.
Bruce shared a glance with Jason. His son gave him a small shrug.
"At any rate, Kara's the only one of you who's actually associated with the Justice League," Bruce said. "We should have enough manpower to get this done as it is. My concern is the teams that aren't ours."
"You mean Interpol," Jason said.
He nodded. "ARGUS is built to handle extreme threats, but Sasha has three operations under her umbrella, and she can only be at one. Cyborg vetted their locations thoroughly, so they shouldn't run into metahuman interference, but if they do…"
"We'll be on standby."
Bruce nodded again.
"Yeah, makes sense." He hugged Bruce. "Good luck, Dad. Please don't give Uncle Clark a hard time."
Bruce smirked. "No promises."
He hugged his daughter, then finished suiting up as they went back to their ready room.
…
Kara walked up to Clark as he went over some last-minute details.
"Be careful out there, Kal," she said.
He smiled and hugged her. "You know I will."
She hugged him back and pulled apart a moment later. "Who's going with you?"
"Zatanna's our magic specialist and Shayera's coming along with a little anti-magic."
"Right. The mace."
He nodded and smirked. "I even convinced Batman to join my team."
Her eyebrows shot up. "The World's Finest, together again."
Clark laughed. "Something like that."
She glanced over to see Cass and Jason saying their goodbyes to Bruce. Kara frowned. He'd only given vague answers about the weird call she'd gotten from Diana last week. He looked okay, so clearly he got over…whatever he'd caught.
"What are you brooding about?"
Kara blinked and looked up at Clark. "Nothing," she answered—too quickly.
He arched an eyebrow.
She sighed hard. "It's Jason. I…think he's keeping secrets from me."
Clark rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, pretty sure that just runs in the family. Bruce is my best friend, and there's a whole laundry list of things he's never told me—and probably never will."
Kara frowned. "That doesn't sound healthy."
He shrugged. "Maybe, but you don't have to know everything about a person to trust them. So what are you really worried about?"
She took a moment to think. "He's been holding something in since Mxy kidnapped him in January. I see it sometimes, this little flash of anxiety when we're talking. And I don't wanna push, but…it's starting to affect other things."
"Hm. Y'know, it's not pushing if you're encouraging good communication. Just uh…" he rubbed the back of his head, "be careful how you go about starting that conversation. One of the many lessons I learned with Lois: don't ask leading questions. Make sure you sound curious, not judgmental. Anything that sounds even a little like judgment gets the hackles up and shuts the other person down." He looked off to the side and smiled. "Especially someone as stubborn as Lois."
Kara smiled and nudged his arm. "Thanks, Kal."
He grinned. "Anytime."
"Clark, it's time."
They both turned to face Batman, who was adjusting something on his gauntlet interface. Clark gave him a nod, then turned back to Kara and smiled.
"Well. Duty calls."
He held his fist out and she bumped it.
"Love you, cuz," she said.
"I love you too. See you soon."
Kara watched the team of four step onto the teleporter and fade from view moments later. In minutes, every other team had done the same, and the Watchtower fell eerily quiet. She sighed hard and returned to the ready room.
…
As soon as Superman's team solidified on the other end of the teleport, it was all business. Batman knelt and opened a case of mini-drones he controlled from his gauntlet. Zatanna uttered a quiet spell that put a "third-eye" bubble around their team in a twenty-meter radius. Basically, it would reveal any traps that might be invisible to Superman's senses or Batman's drones. Shayera double-checked her mace, alternatively extending and retracting the Nth-metal morningstar's spikes. Since the Olympus War, she and Carter had gone to extreme lengths to magic-proof themselves, which meant calling in some favors from Thanagar for the…"requisition" of new equipment.
A few months before the Olympus War, the Altair system had temporarily fallen under Gordanian rule. The native Altairans turned to science they'd once considered forbidden and created a protector from one of their best. He repelled the Gordanian occupation, but doing so caused him to lose control of his power, putting his people in even greater danger. His actions also drove the Gordanians to look for a new base of operations, pushing them to attack some of Thanagar's most populated and profitable colony worlds.
Because of their angle of approach, the Gordanians took the Thanagarian defenses completely off-guard and smashed their way to the system's core worlds in a matter of hours. After their…rocky introduction to the people of Earth, the Thanagarian military had been surprised (to say the least) at the assistance of the Justice League and Titans in repelling this invasion. Though initially just intending to stop the rogue Altairan protector, the League realized the cascading threat and scrambled for a solution. Which was when Shayera reminded them that they had royal friends on speed dial.
Given her own history with the Gordanians, Starfire had appealed to Tamaran's military leader for additional support. In total, three Green Lanterns, a fleet of Tamaranean vessels, most of the active duty Titans, and the League's Founders answered the call with a strike so sudden and devastating, the Gordanians started shooting each other down in the confusion. When all was settled, the invaders' commander was defeated personally by Shayera, and the survivors were captured and imprisoned on a nearby Thanagarian prison world.
Unwilling to let this opportunity pass, Shayera used their fresh gratitude to commission the forging of improved armor for herself and Carter, with special modifications to protect their wings—Shayera still had scars from the time a Parademon skewered her in the back. Despite the fact that she'd long been branded a traitor to Thanagar, the system commander grudgingly agreed. Thus, Shayera was now decked-out in a black combat suit with silver and gold plates of Nth-metal over her vital organs and forearms, and a winged helmet with the same pattern. She tapped something on her chestpiece that sent interlocking plates of Nth-metal expanding to shield all but the furthest feathers of her wings. Now if anyone came at them with magic, all she had to do was shift her wings to nullify it.
Clark had to admit, it struck an imposing picture. He turned to Batman.
"Ready?"
Batman nodded.
Superman took a deep breath and launched into the clouds, quickly joined by Shayera.
In addition to its manufacturing purpose, the site they'd chosen was, far as they could tell, the main gathering site for Circe's "god dust" before it went to Mt. Lycabettus. This base was a relay station in the Taurus Mountains, set near the border of Qurac and Bialya. Satellite scans revealed a similar setup to the Lycabettus operation—scaled up about ten times. Given the strategic value of this base, they fully expected a dense complement of Red Claw mercenaries, Bestiamorphs, and whoever else Sionis could get on his payroll—maybe even some Myrmidons, given their recent patterns.
From the air, Superman peered through the clouds to see the bulk of their force concentrated near a massive megawarehouse in the center of the base. He heard even more inside—as expected, they'd lined the walls with lead. The outside perimeter was nothing to sneeze at either, with a fortified wall surrounding the complex and no less than a dozen heavily armed guards on each side. Plus automated .50 caliber turrets, SAMs, even a C-RAM (essentially a high-explosive bullet hose) they'd managed to set up on the central structure. How they'd managed to get this much hardware in one place without being noticed was a question for Batman to answer when this was over.
For now, Superman mentally noted those stationary defenses as top priority and marked them with an interface built into his suit. Like Kara's, his uniform was Kryptonian nanotech—self-repairing, with built-in communications and passive visual and environmental data recording. It was based off one of Jor-El's last designs for the Kryptonian Science Council and refined with research shared by New Genesis and the Altairans. Thus, it was child's play to share his findings with the rest of the team. The new contacts were projected onto Batman's drone network and marked for destruction.
As one, Batman and Zatanna moved in under cover of darkness.
"Mrotsdnas revoc," he heard her whisper.
Within seconds, the wind below whipped up and descended on the complex in a thick whirlwind of sand. Common enough in this region, the sudden sandstorm didn't attract much response from the guards except to throw tarps over the more sensitive equipment. Superman gave Shayera a nod, and they silently descended on the complex as Batman and Zatanna breached the perimeter. Batman grappled over the wall, slipping past the mostly-blinded guards like stepping between raindrops. Zatanna just floated over their heads and followed him. She kept her feet off the ground to avoid making sound, not that anyone could hear a thing in the storm.
One by one, each turret and launcher was fitted with thermite or a magic trap that would trigger on Zatanna's word. The C-RAM was the biggest threat, at least to Shayera. If its radar picked her up, it'd shred her in less than a second unless her wings got in place first.
Superman tapped his earpiece. "This is gonna get loud as soon as I take out that central turret. Let me know when you're in position."
His comms. clicked twice to signify they heard. Superman waited two long minutes, stretching his hearing to listen for any unexpected threats inside the warehouse. He picked up half a dozen languages native to the region, nothing odd there. Mostly, their conversations pertained to incoming and outgoing shipments or what they were planning to do on break. He moved on to the wall, trying to see if anyone noticed the perimeter had been breached. No one had.
Then he listened for the base commander and discovered something interesting: Red Claw and the Bestiamorphs were at odds.
"{We were doing just fine before your witch made us a target.}"
"{Sure, if by 'fine' you mean you were scratching a living off rocks.}"
"{At least those rocks didn't hurl cars at us.}"
"{Your own indiscretions made you the Bat's enemy. You have tangled with him before; you know the price of targeting one of his.}"
The rest of their conversation in frenzied Arabic followed much the same pattern. Superman tapped his earpiece.
"Got something interesting," he said. "Looks like Red Claw's not so keen on continuing the fight with the losses they've taken so far. If Falling Star works, we might just break the backbone of the Network's security."
As expected, Batman didn't reply except to click his mic.
Then three rapid clicks came thirty seconds later.
Superman exhaled sharply and zeroed in on the C-RAM. Then his eyes glowed and vision aimed for a precise shot to its firing system. From the clouds above, two thin beams of crimson heat speared through the device, turning the multi-million-dollar turret into a ludicrously expensive paperweight.
Then all hell broke loose. Panicked shouts of Arabic, Greek, Farsi, and a half-dozen other languages echoed across the base as Hawkgirl and Superman descended through the sandstorm like meteors. Dozens more explosions erupted in a deafening chain with Batman and Zatanna's sabotage. Gunfire broke out a moment later, most missing the fliers. Four mercs were entrapped in sand mounds with a wave of Zatanna's wand, and a sand wall shielded her from concentrated fire by six more.
A piercing shriek came from Shayera's throat as she descended on them mace-first. Three screamed from dislocated or broken arms that didn't let go of their weapons before she smashed them to bits. The butt of her mace clocked another in the jaw, and a long throw crushed a heavy machine gun emplacement before they could get a bead on her. Then her tucked wings unfurled and guarded her rear as she went to work with bare hands. Automatic gunfire bounced off her new armor while she pieced up a merc with rapid open-palm strikes to the chin and shoulders.
Her mace snapped back to her hand in time for another to leap at her, transforming into a Komodo dragon midair. Shayera slammed him into a pile of sandbags and took off for the wall without losing a step. As for Superman…
He touched down right in the center of the warehouse with a shockwave powerful enough to throw everyone in the building off their feet—and destroy a good portion of the surrounding crates.
As soon as the dust started to settle, he called out loudly, in rapid sequence of each language he'd heard, "{Throw down your weapons and surrender!}"
A long moment passed.
Then they all opened fire and started transforming. Sighing, Clark let the ricochets shred a good portion of the room before bringing his hands together in a thunderclap that threw everything back a good ten meters. His heat vision melted their fallen weapons until a trio of Bestiamorphs tried to tackle him. These were anthropomorphs of predator species—lions and hyenas both. They only succeeded in making him skid a few feet to the side. He backhanded one into a girder, then slapped the heads of the other two together. A hard impact snapped his head a little to the side, and he turned to see a squad of mercs with smart rifles.
His heat vision swept over their weapons on the next volley, incinerating bullets and barrels both. In a blink, Superman closed the distance and palmed them into various debris. They didn't get back up. A cheetah morph leapt from the rafters and clawed at his face. He sidestepped it and tried to grab his assailant. The cheetah twisted around his hands and kicked him in the gut to little effect. Snarling, he stabbed his claws at Superman's chest. Clark grabbed his wrists and gave him a gentle headbutt.
Then he heard a flicker of movement from behind and gasped as something sliced through his back. Three hyena morphs had ambushed him with their comrade's distraction. Clark frowned at the slight pain. Apparently Circe's enchantment had imbued their claws with magic strong enough to make him vulnerable. The cuts were barely skin-deep, and he and the suit had already healed, but still. As one, he heard a din of distorted cackling fill the warehouse as photo-reflective eyes appeared on every side. Hyenas, wild dogs, lions, tigers, cheetahs, panthers—Bestiamorphs of every furry, clawed predator he could think of, and there were at least twenty of them.
Sighing, Superman rolled his shoulders and got to work.
Two cheetahs were grabbed by the scruff and thrown into charging packs of wild dogs. A pair of lions tried pinning him down only to get taken for a ride when he flew up and hurled them into a hyena pack. Two panthers tried leaping for him midair only for Superman to calmly float out of their reach. He landed on one end of the room and took in a breath, releasing it a moment later and whipping the whole group into a maelstrom of fur and claws. The twenty or so Bestiamorphs slammed into the far wall of the warehouse hard enough to leave dents. That far wall caved in when a charging rhino morph barreled through in a panic.
The reason for that panic became apparent enough when Clark saw Batman riding his back with a cable lashed around his horn. In a mad craze, the rhino ran straight for one of the central pillars holding the building up and caved it in enough to make part of the roof collapse. Superman dashed for the falling debris and blocked it from crushing some of the unconscious mercs. The rhino still hadn't dislodged his passenger and was running for another pillar. Superman dashed into the rhino's path and tripped him at just the right angle to send him tumbling away from the pillar.
Oh, and snatched Bruce off his back before he got crushed. Batman gave Superman a look as he set him down. Clark grinned.
The Bestiamorphs were back on their feet and charging, along with a fresh wave of Red Claw who stormed through the gap made by the rhino. But reinforcements weren't all the hole let in—Zatanna's sandstorm was already giving some of the beasts trouble due to their sensitive senses. So Clark got an idea and went back-to-back with Bruce.
Superman took another breath and altered his lungs. When he exhaled, a thick wall of ice formed from the sand and moisture in the air, blocking their assailants on one side while Batman dealt with a squad of mercs on the other. Batarangs whizzed through the air as gunfire broke out. Superman just needed a glance back to see he was doing fine. So he turned around and faced the ice wall and the small army of Bestiamorphs clawing at or climbing it.
And he smashed his palm into it dead-center.
A torrent of ice chunks large and small pelted the crowd, pummeling them into the ground or whatever else they landed on. Within seconds, those ice chunks were used to restrain whoever they were closest to as Zatanna stepped through the gap with muttered spells.
"How's the outside?" Clark asked.
"Shayera has them on the run, but I'm guessing we don't want any getting away."
Superman smirked. "You guess right. Got things here?"
Zatanna nodded.
Superman launched off through the hole he'd made in the roof and scanned the base for any runners. A few vehicles—trucks, bikes. A lot more panicked mercs or beasts were on foot, trying to escape the sandstorm. They were at least smart enough to not all go in the same direction, but they couldn't get nearly far enough to escape. All it would take is a little superspeed herding.
Clark smiled.
Looks like a job for me.
…
The vibe between Jason and Kara was off, Cass could tell that much. Still, it was none of her business unless they made it otherwise. So instead, she turned to Lucas and scooted closer to him.
"Hey."
Luke glanced at her and smiled. "Hey you."
Cass frowned a little as he turned his attention back to the operation monitors. She vacillated over how to broach this subject and decided the direct method was probably best.
"Luke…what's the deal with you and Amanda Waller?"
The momentary tension in his body was nothing short of terror. It relaxed fairly quickly, but he still looked uneasy when he turned to face her.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Cass gave him a look. "I saw the way you were after you met at Belle Reve, how fast you left." Her head shook slightly. "What does she have on you?"
Lucas took a deep breath and stared into the distance for a moment, then smiled uneasily. "Nothing. She actually has nothing." A chuckle. "It's uh…one of the reasons she wanted to meet. I made it clear that leaving me alone was her best option."
She frowned deeper. "Then why were you so scared?"
He didn't answer for a while, just gave the wall a thousand-yard stare. Then he smiled at her without mirth. "I guess you can chalk that up to childhood trauma."
Her brows furrowed. "What?"
Lucas grimaced. "When I first met you and the guys, I told you about how I got my powers. I never said what happened when I discovered what I could do."
Cass listened attentively.
He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. "When I…took my younger self to the hospital after the lightning strike, I was in a coma for three days. When I woke up, the hospital staff were trying to figure out where I came from. Since I didn't feel like being sent back to a group home, I ran away—and ended up outrunning every car I passed." Lucas' eyes shut. "But I didn't know how to control it, or even how to slow down. So when I stopped…" he stared at the floor, "it was because I hit a kid." He swallowed visibly. "Snapped his spine, paralyzed him from the waist down. And I didn't know about it until I woke up hours later."
Cass sighed and touched his arm. "I'm sorry. That must've been terrifying."
To her surprise, Lucas smiled venomously. "I should've snapped his neck."
She stared at him.
Luke glanced at her. "Remember what I told the team, about Theodore Quint?"
She nodded.
"That was him. He showed his true colors a few years later." He took a deep breath. "But that's a story for another time. Earth-Theta's Waller and Cadmus conducted a lot of metahuman experiments over the years, but they'd never had the opportunity to study a speedster. So when Quint's rich parents called in a favor to throw the book at the 'dangerous freak,' Waller saw that as an opportunity.
"So she kidnapped me from the hospital and held me at a Cadmus blacksite. No records, no arrest, no trial." His jaw clenched as he smiled bitterly. "I was thirteen." Lucas rubbed his arm and stared at the table in front of them. "I don't…really remember much of the facility. I spent most of my time there drugged out of my mind." He winced. "Really it's just flashes of memory, sensation. Lots of needles, treadmills…they even hooked me up to a mechanical dynamo to see how much power I could generate if they put me to work. The uh…the worst part though…"
Cass could see fear flash in his gray eyes.
Lucas shook himself off and cleared his throat. "The part I remember most was the…I think it was uh…about a week? Yeah, about a week that they dedicated to testing the limits of my um…" He moved his hands around, searching for the right words. "My regeneration."
Cass felt a chill ripple across her skin. "I won't ask for details."
His lips twitched with a faint smile. "Thank you." Luke took a breath. "Not long after that, my metabolism adjusted to the drugs they used to sedate me. It burned through them, got me sober enough to try escaping. That's when Slade found me. He's the only reason I made it out alive."
"So you went to work for him."
Luke shrugged. "He agreed to train me, take care of me…and all he wanted was a favor. I figured it was the least I could do." He took a breath. "Bottom line: Waller used me as a lab rat for months and it made a lasting impression. So while I know rationally that there's nothing she can do to me now…doesn't really matter up here." He tapped his temple. "Like I said, childhood trauma." A chuckle. "It's a bitch."
She nodded slowly, staring at the table. "Thank you for telling me."
Lucas stared at her for a bit. His body language was strange, uncertain. "Why ask now? It's been weeks since Belle Reve."
"Didn't really have the opportunity before. Besides—" she nodded at the monitors, "—with us working with ARGUS, I figured now was as good a time as any to find out if Waller's going to be a problem."
When Cass looked back to Luke, she found him hiding a tiny smile. He didn't say anything, just looked back at the monitors. A while later, he spoke.
"I appreciate you being on my side," he said softly.
Cass frowned. "You're part of the team—and my friend. Why wouldn't I be?"
A sad smile tugged at his lips. "Sometimes that's not enough."
She wondered what he meant for all of two seconds before she noticed Jason's tension in her peripheral vision. Cass frowned and looked at him and Kara.
"What's happening there?" she asked softly.
Lucas shrugged. "Don't know."
Cass's lips pursed tightly. She didn't like the look of this one bit.
…
"Hey, are you sure you're a hundred percent?"
Jason turned at Kara's question, brows knitted. "What do you mean?"
Kara's lips pursed. "I mean, a week ago, you were laid out sick. So much you couldn't even call me. You're sure you're okay?"
Jason froze for a second. "Yeah. Yeah I'm uh…I'm fine. Mom got in touch with some Amazon healers to find out what could even affect me, even called in a favor with Athena to figure it out. But I'm all good now."
Kara nodded slowly. "What was the issue?"
He swallowed, mind racing for an answer.
From the side, Caden noticed his apprehension and frowned.
"Kid," he called softly, shaking his head. "Come on."
Kara glanced his way. "Come on what?"
Jason grimaced and stared at the floor. "Pretty much right after we left the museum, our bus got attacked by those two Bestiamorph lieutenants. One of them hit me with something that was apparently designed to kill Titans, like the original rulers-of-the-universe Titans, with some kind of corrosive curse called Stygian Flame."
Kara stared at him.
"Athena gave us a recipe for a cure using nectar and ambrosia. Themyscira's healing pools kept me stable until they put it together."
"…who's 'they?'"
"Cassie, Donna, and Artemis."
Jason forced himself to look at her, finding nothing except a blank stare.
"I take it Caden knew?" she asked.
He nodded. "He was running a parallel operation to track down a new Venom type that Elliot created to kill its users." Jason turned to Drake. "How's the cure coming along?"
Caden frowned. "It's coming. Whatever else he is, Adonis is a genius in the lab—which makes sense, considering he adapted Ares' original formula to make ΔV."
Kara snapped her fingers at Jason. "Don't change the subject. So Caden knew, the Amazons knew, your family." She nodded at Cass. "Who else?"
When Jason didn't immediately answer, Lucas cleared his throat and sheepishly raised his hand. Jason cringed.
Kara huffed and smiled incredulously. "So, everyone but me. Got it."
Alex raised his hand. "I didn't know." He frowned. "Though I probably should've. I coulda healed ya with my ring."
Jason shook his head. "Repairing the damage was never an issue. The problem is the curse would've just kept burning. Now, I don't know everything about Blue Lanterns, but I don't think your healing fixes magic afflictions."
"Woulda been worth a shot."
Jason shrugged.
"Why?"
He turned back to Kara, who was getting increasingly agitated.
"Why was I the last one to know?" She waved around animatedly. "And why were you still insistent on covering it up?!"
Jason's lips pursed as the room fell silent.
"It's not a rhetorical question, dammit!"
"…Kara, there are things you don't know…about the future—your future. And it has to stay that way."
She wagged her finger at him. "Oh no-no-no, you don't get to keep playing that card, okay? If the whole point of you being here in this time is to change the future, then you can't just keep using 'future knowledge' as an excuse to keep secrets. You can't have it both ways, Jace."
He shrugged and threw his arms up. "What do you want me to say, Kara?"
"I want the truth!"
Jason shut his eyes and tried not to lapse into the memories that drove him to this. But still they came.
Deathly pale skin. Pronounced veins of blue tinged with green. Wasting patterns of black crawling up her neck from her chest.
The crystalline fortress and vitals monitor that only kept getting worse.
Jason swallowed hard and forced the visions away. "Something happened…that put you and Circe face to face, head to head. Alone. It ended badly." He met Kara's eyes and shook his head. "That's all I can say."
She stared at him for another second or two, then huffed and shook her head. She started pacing around the room as Jason stared at the ground. He distantly heard footsteps approaching from an adjacent room and felt someone sidle up behind him. Probably Mr. Terrific or one of the support crew. A gentle hand clapped on his shoulder.
"Well…"
Jason froze, chilled to the bone, and snapped his head to look at the speaker. It was, in fact, Mr. Terrific. At least, that's what Jason thought until he saw his eyes. Then the rest of him morphed into all-too-familiar liquid armor and olive skin.
"Much as I'd love to watch this drama play out…"
Before Jason could even think to move, Janus snapped his fingers, and they both vanished.
…
In the instant Mr. Terrific turned into the unfamiliar visitor, Lucas knew something was horribly wrong. At least three of them should've been able to stop the intruder before he vanished with the kid, Lucas included. But as it was, he was barely able to leap from the couch before Janus snapped his fingers. The last time Lucas had felt that slow, he'd been on Earth-14 under the effects of chronoton. Then he remembered what Jason had mentioned about that time-warp ability.
"Damn," was all Lucas could say when he finally stood up.
Kara stared at the empty space for a split-second before she shouted, "Track his armor!"
"Already on it," Cass said, tapping her gauntlet. "Got them! They're…airborne over the Atlantic."
Kara vanished in a burst of speed, followed closely by Lucas.
"Get to the surface and follow when you can!" she shouted.
Then Supergirl flew into the nearest airlock and launched herself toward Earth. Luke grabbed Cass, Alex grabbed Caden, and they all rushed to the nearest teleporters as Cass kept tracking them.
"Damn it," she growled. "They keep teleporting. I can't get a lock on them."
"Yeah, I noticed!" Kara shouted.
Cass pulled her cowl on and tapped her earpiece. "Supergirl, I'm transmitting his active data stream to your suit. If you can get them to stay put, we can teleport right to you."
"You make it sound so easy…"
Luke frowned and watched Cassandra's projection with his heart racing.
…
The moment the Watchtower vanished, Jason was swinging. He immediately went for his sword, but Janus intercepted his hand before he could get a firm grip on it. Jason went for a headbutt to try and create some distance, but Janus nearly used that opportunity to stab him in the face with a dagger made from his suit. Jason jerked his head away at the last second, cursing that he'd been caught without a helmet. A gut punch to Janus managed to break his grip on Jason's shoulder for an instant before the time god was right back on him.
Jason heard the faint pop of a sonic boom before he glanced back to see a familiar blue-and-red streak. His momentary distraction let Janus close the distance, and a moment later they were somewhere else. On the night side of the planet. Jason kneed Janus as soon as they materialized, finally getting a grip on his sword. It snapped out to full length and swept past Janus' face when he jerked to the side. Janus countered with his own blade, a kopis-type he used to chase Jason across the sky.
Jason tapped his collar and deployed his cowl, along with the integrated AR lenses. Between midair clashes, he pulled up his suit's GPS, established a direction, then immediately shot off northbound. One thing he'd noticed: Janus was extremely fast, but he couldn't fly as fast as Jason could. All he had to do was avoid being grabbed and teleported somewhere else, and he could use his last contingency to finally put an end to this bastard.
Jason cursed at the top of his lungs when Janus appeared right in front of him and grabbed hold before he could juke out of the way. They next appeared over a city capped in snow. A moment's glance verified they were flying over Vancouver. Jason grinned.
Perfect.
He'd learned his lesson. Jason flew in supersonic zigzags, making it nearly impossible for Janus to predict his next move and intercept him. He steadily climbed north, getting closer and closer…
Then a flicker of light made his heart jump as Janus appeared in his path, almost within arm's reach. Jason slashed out at him—and immediately panicked when Janus' form flickered and moved out of the way instantly.
Exactly the same way he had in Bialya when Jason had fallen victim to his time-warp.
The instant before Janus could grab him, a blue-red blur tackled him away from Jason. And like that, he could move again. Jason immediately beelined north, flinching when he saw Supergirl and Janus reappear in his path. Kara glanced around once, then turned to him wide-eyed.
Jason just whispered, "Projector."
And she nodded.
Then they flew together, straight for the Fortress of Solitude, using that same unpredictable flight path while keeping distance from each other so Janus couldn't hit them both with the same time-warp.
Why am I no longer immune to it?
Jason didn't know. It wouldn't matter if they managed to lure Janus to the Fortress. Kara tapped something on her arm to open the Fortress defenses, letting them both in. Seconds after touchdown, Janus was nowhere to be found. They exchanged a confused look. Then Kara grunted as she was hurled into a crystalline wall. Janus turned to Jason, who made a show of looking frightened. Then he turned tail and ran. Where was it? Where was that damn vault?
Jason smiled. "Gotcha."
He whirled around to see Janus flying at him, two small blades extended. Jason deployed his shield and set his stance, waiting for Kara to arrive and unlock the vault. A faint hum filled the air for just a moment. Then Janus was clotheslined by a gray blur trailing silver lightning. A giant blue hand grabbed him midair and slammed him into the ground, pinning him there. Jason grinned as Cass tossed him his helmet and Kara caught up to the rest of them.
Janus took one look at the team, then growled and flexed his arms outward. "One or six, it makes no difference. None of you will live to see tomorrow!"
His armor rapidly morphed, transforming sections of it into liquid cables that hooked around Alex's projection and lashed out at him like bladed whips. Jason leapt between them and deflected the cables with his shield. Janus' control of that suit was no joke. The sudden attack nevertheless drew enough of Alex's concentration for Janus to force the projection's grip to widen just a little.
It was enough for him to slip free. At which point he rapidly teleported between each of the team, striking from all sides. Rev immediately countered him at every turn, especially when he tried to attack the base human members of the group—and especially Cass. Janus vanished entirely for a good five seconds, just long enough for them to start wondering.
Then he appeared in the far side of the chamber and splayed his arms outward.
Jason's eyes widened. "Oh shit."
He immediately leapt between the team and Janus as the air around him warped next to either hand and tongues of plasma and deadly-focused light shot from each portal. Jason's gauntlets took the brunt of it, but he was outputting so much more than before. Which was strange, considering he wasn't generating this energy per se. The way Athena told it, Janus could summon any form of matter or energy from anywhere in the Multiverse, as long as he was aware of its time and place. So somewhere, there was enough concentrated plasma and light to make even his volatile Promethium gauntlets start to buckle.
Jason screamed as he held his ground while the rest of the team moved to flank Janus. Janus smiled, then altered the portals from pinpoints to thin lines, sending the energy sweeping out in a wide arc. Blue Lantern had barely enough time to put up a forcefield before the strike hit. A blinding flash erupted from each point of impact, and Jason's ears popped as his hearing failed.
Everything was still ringing seconds later when he saw the rest of the team. Cass and Caden were lying on the floor in the very back of the group, with skintight blue forcefields over their bodies. Alex must've shifted his focus to shield them more thoroughly at the last instant, because his whole left side was shredded, uniform and flesh alike. Luckily, it looked like his ring was steadily healing him, but he was barely conscious. Kara was peeling herself out of a crater she made in a nearby wall. And Lucas…
Jason whipped his head around when he heard a faint gurgle. His eyes widened at the sight of Lucas being held off the ground by his neck, clawing and punching at Janus' arm. Jason looked to the mostly incapacitated team, to Kara, to the now-open vault.
And the Phantom Zone projector contained within.
Jason's jaw clenched as he met Kara's eyes. Hers widened when she realized exactly what he had in mind. An instant later, Jason roared as he tackled Janus into the vault room and slammed his fist against the projector's controls. With a hollow imploding sound, a portal of dark energy erupted in the air, steadily settling into a glassy window that showed little else except a chaotic array of stars beyond its surface.
Janus growled as Jason trapped him in full nelson, struggling to free himself. Jason snapped his hips to throw Janus off-balance, putting his back to the portal.
"Jason!" Kara screamed, rushing to him.
"Stay back!" Jason yelled, desperation lacing his tone.
Jason couldn't tell exactly why, but Janus was so much stronger than he'd been in Bialya; he could already feel the time god breaking his grip. He swept his eyes over the team, then met Kara's gaze with a hard look.
"Keep—it—shut," he ordered. "No matter what."
Then Jason growled and hurled both of them through the closing portal as Kara and Cass screamed his name.
…
He didn't know what he'd expected to feel while crossing into the Phantom Zone. Vertigo and disorientation seemed pretty par for the course, but the overwhelming feeling of existential dread was not something he'd anticipated. It passed in moments, but left a very much lasting impression. He took a moment to verify that the portal had indeed closed, then finally let Janus go. As they both touched down on an immaterial plane, Jason smiled and sighed in relief.
It was over. He'd done it. Whatever happened now, his family was safe. Finally.
Janus, for his part, just stared at his surroundings, looking around. He seemed…strangely unbothered.
"The Phantom Zone," Janus said curiously. "Kal-El's emergency trash bin." He nodded slowly and shrugged. "That's not a bad move." Then he looked to Jason and smiled as he held a single finger up to his lips. "But I think there's a…small detail you might be forgetting."
Jason froze, his whole body chilled to the bone.
"See, I'm not just a god of time."
He moved his fingers as if to snap. It hit Jason all at once.
Gateways.
Jason's eyes widened, and he lunged. He didn't make it halfway before Janus' time-warp stopped him in his tracks.
Janus smiled wider. "I'll give the others your regards."
Then he snapped his fingers, and Jason was alone in the endless void.
AN: A lot happened in this chapter, and it took me a long time to write, largely because I wasn't sure how to fit everything I wanted. Also because I've had some significant health issues to deal with (screw cancer). Writing for Superman is something I hadn't really had the chance to do before this chapter, for the sole reason that it just didn't fit the story. There is, in fact, a significant difference between writing for Kara and writing for Clark, and I hope I was able to convey that difference adequately.
As for everything that followed—well, some of you might remember the White Revenant's backstory with Earth-T's Cadmus if you've read my prior story with him. And as for the end fight…you ain't seen nothing yet. This is the first real team fight with all Vagabonds, and the next chapter is going to showcase that to its fullest. As well as explain a few other things that have been referenced in prior chapters.
Hopefully I can keep going steady, since we're almost finished with Act II, but it's been hard to write anything at all lately. We'll see.
Drake out.
Formatting notes:
– Internal Thoughts/Flashback
– "Super-Hearing/Surveillance"
– Telepathy/Divine Speech
– "{Foreign Language}"
– [Text Message]